Corrugated plastic sheets are used in the sign industry as a backing for signs. This material is made up of a series of flutes connected side by side to form corrugated sheets. This material can be printed on or used as a low cost backing for a sign. This material usually needs to be trimmed or cut to size. Typically a box cutter type knife with a straight edge can be used to cut against the flutes. When cutting with the flutes, an unsightly cut will result if the knife hits a sidewall of the flute causing the knife to “jump flutes”. Most of the time, the flutes are not perfectly straight because of the extruded manufacturing process. They can incorporate a slight wave so it is close to impossible to cut the length of a sheet without crossing a flute wall with a standard box knife and straight edge.
This difficulty in cutting with the flutes was the need that has been filled by a “flute knife” or “flute cutter”. The typical flute knife uses guide members that are attached to a blade and the blade is attached to a handle. The guide member is sized to fit into the flute of the corrugated plastic sheet. It is inserted into the flute and is used to guide the cutting blade as the user pulls the knife through the material. A second guide member, on the end of the blade is used when the user wants to cut one side of the fluted material so he can make a bend or hinge the material.
There are short comings with current flute cutter operation.
Flute cutters need an increased or disproportionate force to initially penetrate a flute wall of a corrugated sheet than the force needed to maintain the cut once started in that sheet.
Flute cutters must have the guide member go straight down the flute tube. If the guide member is not aligned in the flute tube while cutting, it presses against the top or bottom wall of the tube, increasing friction and slowing or stopping the cutting process.
The handle and guide member are at a specific angle when constructed. If the handle is not maintained at that specific angle during the cut, the guide member will press against the top or bottom wall slowing or stopping the cutting process.
Maintaining this critical angle with a traditional flute cutter is awkward and fatiguing. Many times the material is held by hand or the material is leaning against a wall while the user tries to rip its length.
Cutting thicker walled material with a larger traditional flute cutter is close to impossible. The thicker walls of the 10 mill corrugated sheet close on the blade and pinches it during a cut increasing the resistance requiring a Herculean effort by the user.
No flute cutter has a replaceable cutting blade or blade shank. Currently when the flute knife blade dulls out, it is discarded in its entirety including the handle.
There is no flute cutter that has interchangeable guide members to allow for the cutting of different size corrugated plastic sheets.